Tabs

08 March 2018

Sailor, Even Worse

Sailor has just launched a new line of inks by the name of Ink Studio.

This is a collection of 100 colors, bottled in 20 ml inkwells. The price, JPY 1200, plus tax. The ink identification is now just a three digit number.

100 new inks with very poetic names. Sailor strikes again.

The package includes the text “dye ink” and these inks are likely to be variations of the well-known Jentle/Shikiori type.

JPY 1200 per 20 ml means JPY 60/ml.

20 ml inkwells for JPY 1200, plus tax.

Now, my personal coment:

Really?

Now Sailor becomes even more expensive (::1::, ::2::) while offering the supposed benefit of a palette of 100 colors. However, I grant Sailor the realization that nowadays the variety in the palette is more desirable than the actual amount of ink. And 50 ml inkwells might be too big at this time and age.

The catalog of colors together with their reference numbers. 100 colors, 100!

7 comments:

Brian
said...

I suspect that they figure many shoppers don't calculate cost per ml, they simply look at cost per ink. The trend towards collecting a billion inks that will never be finished means that, as you say, variety is more desirable than quantity. With these Sailor inks, you can get a new color for your shelf more cheaply than, say, Iroshizuku.

Isn't it funny (strange) - 100*1200 Yen = 120000 Yen = 914 Euro = 1124 USD for 2L of ink.What do you do with so many different colors? If you don't use them it is too expensive. If you really use them, 20ml is not enough.

I have bought the full set of Sailor Jentle Ink and a set of 10 Iroshizuka 50ml bottles. I guess I have now enough ink for years to come. Especially, as I buy my blue and black Pelikan ink in 1L bottles for about 20 Euro each. Certainly,there are shades which I like better than those which I have. But same as with pens, I can't have them all. So, I refuse to buy inks which are more expensive than Iroshizuka - 1000 Yen for 50ml is expensive enough*. I close my eyes on other ink. At least, I try.* In Japan, you can buy sets of 10 or 20 or 24 for about 1000 Yen each and you can choose to buy 10 of 1 color or 10 different colors or anything in between.

I agree with your comments that the value is terrible but I am also annoyed that their numbering system seems completely arbitrary. Its not number 001-100 from lightest to darkest nor did they match the colors to the Pantone Matching System (which would have been the smartest thing to do, IMHO) but instead they seem completely random. So, I'm annoyed on all fronts.

Thank you all for your comments. I think I agree with you all, and we all share our puzzlement.

I am also deeply surprised by the apparent lack of system in the numbers of the colors. It becomes cumbersome to find out that particular reference someone mentioned by number. Terrible on all fronts.

Thanks, Michael, for your hint on how to find cheap(er) ink in Japan. I am positive that similar tricks exist everywhere. There is something absurd in pursuing those fancy inks from overseas--the exotic Orient in this case--when priced this expensively.

And I think Brian is right--many a user might consider just price per inkwell rather than price per ml. I mentioned this on the following text: http://estilofilos.blogspot.jp/2018/03/inks-price-and-variety.htmlBut I am stubborn and I need to protect myself against inflation.